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About Us

I grew up in the South Island of NZ where life is simpler and people are often more connected to where their food comes from.

For as long as I can remember, my mum and dad have always had a glass house and a veggie garden, so home-grown fruit and veggies were the norm. It’s a shame I didn’t pay more attention at the time, otherwise I wouldn’t be learning how to grow veggies from scratch now!

My dad is a hunter and keen fisherman, so we would often have wild venison, pork or chamois on the table and occasionally goat, paua and trout. My mum always made sure our food and home products were “clean” so they were often organic and chemical-free. I am pretty open minded to natural therapies and remedies through exposure to my mum’s various holistic interests – yoga, mediation, herbals and homeopathy among others – and I think this has contributed to my interest in health and fitness.

I studied health sciences at Otago University and met my husband – Andrew – in Melbourne while on uni holidays. We have been living down on the beautiful Mornington Peninsula ever since.

The Peninsula is a semi-rural, bayside oasis of market gardens and boutique vineyards. We really love our lifestyle down here and try to make the most of the fantastic area where we live as it is an absolute foodie’s dream!

I have spent time working in a gym in Mornington, selling gym memberships and I am currently a medical representative calling on both GP and pharmacy customers.

One of the disease states I discuss with my GP customers is diabetes and the more I learn about it the more horrific it seems! I wouldn’t wish any chronic disease on my worst enemy let alone myself and my family.

So, in our bid to avoid metabolic derangement and various diseases of modern civilisation, Andrew and I have cleaned up our diet and have collectively lost over 50kgs in the last year. We have been eating to a Paleolithic template and have learnt a lot about ourselves in the process.

From a movement perspective, I worked out regularly in the gym for years and enjoyed kickboxing and other martial arts. More recently, I have been crossfitting for about a year and a half. But I am not your average crossfit athlete…actually from where I generally sit at the bottom of the board, average is something to aspire to! If nothing else this blog will make me more accountable for time spent in the box and kickstart my progress which has been stalled for the last 6-8 months.

He eats. He sleeps. He moves.

He wonders why he needs an ‘about me’.

In short, Andrew is very happy to once again look like his 2002 passport photo. Andrew is my mentor, editor and funny injector. He will veto all of the crap that might have made its way onto this blog and all of the stuff that is inappropriate to be shared with the world.

Lastly, my many thanks go to Andrew, he is unfailingly supportive of me in my endeavours…even when it means that his private life will be splashed all over the internet!

About the Eat. Sleep. Move. Blog

My vision for this blog is to share our experiences with anyone who might be interested in the Paleo Diet, weight-loss, health and longevity, eating to support a Crossfit habit and learning to cook and be more self-sufficient in the garden. I am keen to share stories, opinions, learnings, recipes and tips on how to incorporate Paleo into your lifestyle, growing veggies at home in the backyard and training in a Crossfit box. My hope is that this will give you the inspiration to take responsibility for your own health and well-being and also to put some tools in the tool-box to effect change.

Lets face it though, I am not an expert in any of this. I am learning as well. When it comes to this whole gardening caper, I am trying to turn my very brown thumbs green! I have a huge interest in improving health and longevity through quality nutrition and currently all of my reading around nutrition is completely self-directed with the intention of formal study in the future. I am not a trainer, but I do believe that a big focus on functional strength and mobility will serve any person well – young or old.

As part of the sharing experience I value any comments and feedback from you guys. Also, any tips you might have for things that work for you and recipes you have found. Gardening tips will be especially well received but everything is welcome. There will hopefully be opportunity for guest posts, so if there is anything in particular you want to see in this blog please feed it back.

At this stage my intention is to post at least once a week and I will continue to update the Eat. Sleep. Move. Facebook page daily. Feel free to sign up to the RSS feed or enter your details below, so whenever a new post is published it will come straight to your email inbox.

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Crystal & Andrew, Before and After Paleo

Guest Posts

I am proud to announce that my mum has very gen­er­ously offered to share her knowl­edge and exper­tise with all of us.
Draw­ing on over 30 years of gar­den­ing expe­ri­ence, she will dis­till that knowl­edge down into some guest posts for Eat. Sleep. Move.
These posts will include tips on grow­ing your own veg­gies at home, high­lights on when to plant cer­tain crops and updates on what she is up to at the Ran­giora Com­mu­nity Gar­dens.

Kathy Reid, my mum

Hi I’m Kathy,

I am Crystal’s mum and I live with my husband Wayne just north of Christchurch in New Zealand. We have a veggie garden, glasshouse and orchard where we grow our own food organically. I think there is nothing better than fresh organic produce picked straight from your own garden!

It was my mum who first sparked my love of gardening when I was 6 years old. I used to work at her side helping to keep the weeds away from her beautiful flowers. Over time, propagating plants and growing veggies has become a passion.

I also have the pleasure of demonstrating veggie gardening principles at Rangiora Community Garden (RCG) which was founded in January 2010. When we first started, the garden was 1 acre of wilderness. It included, an overgrown veggie garden & unruly herbaceous borders, orchard of fruit trees, grove of hazel nut trees, walnut trees, berries bushes, glasshouse, 1 compost heap, hen house (no resident chooks) and a gazebo.

We have since divided the veggie garden into 14 veggie plots on a 4 year crop rotation, added a pottage & herb garden, worm farm, 3 more compost heaps, covered table for propagation, chooks into the hen house, liquid fertilisers – comfrey & nettle, worm, horse/cow & seaweed – raised beds for volunteers with disabilities and a children’s play area.

The RCG is maintained by a coordinator and team of volunteers including myself. We operate the garden organically and the fresh produce we grow is harvested and packed into boxes. The food is then distributed to the needy people of our community.

In my role at the RCG, I enjoy sharing my gardening skills with others, building relationships, guiding and encouraging people to overcome challenges while enjoying the gardening experience. I look forward to sharing my knowledge and expertise with you also.

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About Crystal & Andrew Fieldhouse

My husband and I aim to eat quality, nutrient dense food (fruit and veggies that are seasonal and locally sourced or home-grown in addition to meat or fish that is grass-fed or wild-caught), get lots of quality sleep in a pitch black room, and train for functional strength and mobility. This blog is a reflection of our learnings and experiences with eating to a Paleolithic template, improving our sleeping habits, training in a Crossfit box, learning to cook and growing our own heirloom veggies.

Ecology Skincare

The Primal Shift Podcast

Your hosts Crystal, Jo & Charby invite you to listen, learn and share as we talk ‘practical approaches to primal living in the modern world‘, along with regular guests, experts, practitioners and of course you guys, the everyday person trying to make a Paleo or Primal lifestyle work for you.